Before Squid Game, another death game series took the world by storm with its unique concept and terrifying games: Netflix's 2020 hit Alice in Borderland. Based on the manga written by Haro Aso, Alice in Borderland follows a young man named Ryohei Arisu who spends his days playing video games. He and his two best friends Karube and Chota find themselves in an alternate version of Tokyo known as the Borderland, where the city is desolate and devoid of all people -- that is until they reach an arena where they and a few others in the Borderland have to take part in deadly games in order to survive to the next day. Each game's difficulty and nature is denoted by a playing card; the higher the number, the higher the difficulty.

Season 1 of Alice in Borderland ended in a massive cliffhanger, leaving many fans scrambling for answers and waiting with bated breath for Season 2. Recently, Netflix announced that a second season would be coming in 2022, although it's not clear whether it's in the early or latter half. With the second season around the corner, here are some of the biggest unanswered questions from the first.

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What are the Face Cards?

Alice in Borderland's face card games

Everything up to this point had been about collecting all of the number cards in the slim hope that this would allow the players to return to their world. The very last game was a ten of hearts, where the players were tasked to find and kill the witch. In their frenzy, the players turned the game into a witch-hunt, with many killed. Despite finding the last card, it did not send the survivors back to their own world. Instead, Arisu, Usagi, Chishiya and Kuina were invited by a gleeful Mira to participate in the next stage: the face card games.

The face card games will undoubtedly be much harder than the other games, but it's not clear what the games' natures will be. What face card games will Arisu and Usagi have to play and survive in? The various face cards are located throughout Tokyo via blimps, marking off where the arenas are waiting. All the numbered games that Arisu has played thus far have all really been games without much of a clear opponent except in Episode 2. However, now that Mira has revealed herself, it looks like the other game masters might also be making their debuts in the face card games.

What is the Borderland?

alice in borderland first time in borderland

When Arisu and his friends first landed in the Borderland, they barely had any time to figure out what exactly the Borderland was because of the more immediate concern of trying to stay alive. Once he did have some time to think, there were many questions racing through Arisu's mind. All the players come from different backgrounds and have no connection to one another other than the fact that they have all been brought to the Borderland. None of them know why they were the ones chosen to come, nor what the purpose of the Borderland is.

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Before he was transported to the Borderland, Arisu was living his days listlessly. The games in the Borderland triggered his survival instinct, but after the events that transpired in Episode 3, Arisu lost his will to live. Grief-stricken, he knew that his survival meant everyone else's deaths. In fact, he was ready to die, simply waiting for the time on his visa to run out. However, Usagi forced him to look deep inside himself and ask what he was living for.

Who is Behind it All?

alice in borderland mira

In the last episode of Alice in Borderland Season 1, Mira, one of the players on the Hatter's team, was revealed to be one of the masterminds behind the games. She recounted with relish how the remaining players all had to kill in order to arrive at the final stage. It was a huge shock to Arisu and the rest of the players because that meant the game masters are currently players or were once players themselves. Although it looks as though Mira is the one orchestrating the games, it's highly unlikely that she's doing this on her own.

Who are the other game masters? What made them go to such lengths to create these games? And if they are players just like everyone else, why are they doing this? Will Arisu get the answers he needs if he wins the face card games?

It will be interesting to see where Season 2 takes viewers. Will it go down the route the manga went, or will the series decide to create a live-action-only ending? Given the huge amount of success the first season garnered, the second season of Alice in Borderland will be met with a lot of anticipation.

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